Lydia Wilbard

When Lydia Wilbard was just ten years old, her mother died. From that moment on, Lydia dreamed of becoming a nurse so that she could help to cure people when they got sick. But growing up in a small village in rural Tanzania, her ambitions seemed like an impossible dream.

Lydia was sent to live with her aunt who had seven sons of her own. Conditions were tough and Lydia had little time to go to school because she was too busy cooking, cleaning, collecting wood and washing clothes for her male cousins while they went off to school.

“I understood very early in life that, if I am well educated, it will make me whatever I want to be,” Lydia WilbardWhen Lydia did manage to get to lessons, she was often punished for being late. Her punishment included more sweeping and cleaning, which made her miss even more lessons and left her too exhausted to study. Sometimes Lydia’s head teacher punished her frequent absences by telling her not to come to school for a month.

In spite of these obstacles, Lydia was the only child in her primary school class to pass the exam to go on to secondary school. As one of the brightest students in her district, she was awarded a scholarship from the government so that she could attend secondary school.

“I understood very early in life that, if I am well educated, it will make me whatever I want to be,” she says. “So whenever I got the chance, I would get hold of anything that looked educational and hook myself to it.”

Lydia left her aunt and cousins behind to study at Rugambwa Secondary School. Here she found that she was able to finish the domestic chores much more quickly than the other girls and had plenty of time to get on with her studies.

“Other students found it difficult to cope with the workload of washing their clothes and farming the allotments,” says Lydia. “But for me this was such a light workload compared to before.”

However, poverty continued to plague Lydia throughout her school years. In spite of the government scholarship, she wasn’t always able to pay her school fees promptly. And when she was told that she wouldn’t be able to receive her Leaving Certificate if she didn’t settle her debts and pay $5 in exam fees, her dreams of becoming a nurse were almost in tatters.

Using all the entrepreneurial skills she could muster, Lydia gave her friend $1.50 to buy some postcards and writing pads when she went to the city. Lydia then sold them to her fellow students at a profit. Very quickly her business prospered and soon she had enough money to settle all her debts at school and even had some funds left over to buy shoes, clothes, a bag and her ticket home.

Now, at the age of 26, Lydia is finally able to fulfil her dream. She is studying to become a nurse at Muhimbili University in Tanzania’s capital, Dar es Salaam. Not only does she support her own studies by running a small photographic business, she has also earned enough money to support her extended family and to pay the hospital costs for her younger brother, who was paralysed for seven years. Thanks to the treatment, he is now able to walk again.

Today, Lydia works with Camfed as a passionate advocate for girls’ education and a leading member of a support network for younger girls in rural communities throughout Tanzania. Together she and Camfed are making sure that thousands more girls like Lydia will get the opportunity of an education that she fought so hard to secure.